Thicker Than Water - DK5 (34 page)

Kerry blinked, scattering a few sparkles of moisture, and a tiny, charmed smile appeared on her face.

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Melissa Good

“What?” Dar smiled back. “Do I have chocolate on my chin again?”

“Milk.” Kerry rubbed the residue off Dar’s upper lip and gazed at her with a look of utter love. “A night of shameless hedonism, huh?”

“Yeah.” Dar found the sea green eyes irresistibly fascinating.

“I figured we could start off by ordering something really bad for us from the Italian place, then sort of go from there.”

“Will this night of hedonism include hot fudge?”

“Yes.”

“Hot tub?”

“Yes.”

“Hot…mmfp.” Kerry took the kiss as an answer to that question and surrendered willingly to the plan.

IT WAS MUCH later, when Kerry, stifling a yawn with one hand, climbed up the stairs to her office. Her hair was still damp from the Jacuzzi, and she could smell the distinct tang of chlorine on her skin. Mixed with a little fudge. Kerry licked her lips, and couldn’t quite repress a grin.
Nothing like a little hedonism to
brighten up one’s perspective on things, eh?
She spared a moment to think about what her family’s reaction would be to their activities of the evening, imagining her mother’s face as she described just how skillful Dar was with…

“God, Kerrison, stop it. You’ll go blind.” She slapped the side of her head a time or two and entered her office.

It felt like it had been a month since she’d been in there.

Kerry paused to look around the room, the contents mostly those she’d had on her walls in her apartment back in Kendall: her certificates and awards, her professional credentials, and the first few of her attempts at photography—including a sunset shot of the Miami skyline.

Kerry walked to the photograph and looked at that, then shifted her attention to the eight by ten of Dar, the first picture she’d ever taken of her partner, before they’d become lovers. It had been at the corporate community participation day. Dar had just finished her painting tasks, and she’d been sitting on the edge of a garbage can, dotted with paint spatters and outlined in the sunset’s golden light. Kerry had impulsively grabbed Mari’s camera and focused it, attracting Dar’s attention at the very last second before she closed the shutter button.

Those blue eyes; that suddenly warm grin, aimed straight at her; the connection they’d made even with her behind the camera.

After the shot, Kerry had lowered the camera and reluctantly
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handed it back to Mari, wishing with all her heart she’d thought to bring her own instead.

Kerry touched the framed photo, delivered to her desk in an envelope without any comment a week later. She’d been so excited, and pulled it out and looked at it for minutes at a time when she should have been working.

It had been one of the pictures she’d taken home to show Angie, because there was just something so amazingly sweet about it and even now, looking at it, she couldn’t help but smile at the love now obvious to her in Dar’s expression. Maybe she’d known all along the promise held in that look.

Kerry leaned forward and gently kissed the picture, and then she turned around, dropped into her desk chair, and rummaged inside the drawer for the packet of receipts she’d gone upstairs to retrieve. A square of glossy paper blocked her search, and she pulled it out impatiently, turned it over, and put it on the desk out of the way. The lettering was now uppermost and she sat there quietly and reread the invitation to her high school reunion.

Slowly, a smile crossed her face. She picked up the invitation, left the receipts behind, and trotted out the door and down the steps with her still damp hair bouncing along. “Hey, Dar?”

“Yeeeeeess?” Dar’s low purr answered from where she was sprawled on the couch. “Something else I can do for you, beautiful?”

Kerry’s hormones almost made it down the stairs before she did. She scooted across the tile floor, slid to a halt next to the couch, and bumped her knees right next to Dar’s arm. “I have a favor to ask.”

A lazy blue eye regarded her. “Anything.”

Kerry knelt down and offered her the card. “I didn’t realize this was on the back of that letter I got the other week.”

Dar examined the card, then looked at Kerry in some surprise. “You want to go to this? Really?”

“No.” Kerry smiled. “I want
us
to go to it.” She leaned on the couch edge. “There’re a lot of prissy gits I want to show up.”

“Whatever you want, Ker.” Dar clasped her fingers around Kerry’s. “Do we have to wear leather?”

Kerry’s eyes twinkled appreciatively. “Maybe we do.”

Dar edged over on the couch and pulled gently. Kerry took a seat on the edge of the cushion, then laid her body diagonally over Dar’s. They gazed quietly at each other for a minute in silence, only the air conditioning humming along in the background.

Kerry lifted her hand off Dar’s shoulder and traced the planes of her face with careful fingers. Blue eyes followed her motion, 202
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then lifted and seemed to reach out to capture her, drawing her inward and downward until her body was pressed against Dar’s and she replaced her fingers with her lips.

“Mm.” Dar closed her eyes as she smiled, her hands coming to rest on Kerry’s sides and teasingly tickled up and down them.

She felt Kerry’s ribs expand outward under her cotton shirt as she took a deeper breath and continued her motion, enjoying the familiar contours under her touch.

She knew every inch of Kerry’s body—all its planes, all its quirky irregularities. She loved the softness of her skin, and the slowly building strength she had felt grow under it to cover the sturdy bones that had seemed so very close to the surface when they’d first met.

“You know what I was voted most likely to?” Kerry whispered. “In high school?”

Dar almost lost the question when Kerry’s lips descended on hers and their bodies pressed tighter against one another. “Bet it wasn’t that,” she rumbled softly, as they paused to breathe. “Run for president?” She took in a breath filled with Kerry’s scent and reveled in it.

Kerry chuckled, shaking her head slightly as she deferred answering for another kiss. She felt Dar’s hand slip under her shirt, warm against her skin as fingers traced slow circles across her ribcage. “Nothing.”

“Eh?” Dar eased Kerry’s shirt up and gently cupped her breast.

“Nothing,” Kerry repeated and inhaled sharply as her body reacted to Dar’s touch. “Said I’d never leave home.” She kissed Dar. “Never go anywhere.” Her voice broke slightly on the last word. “Never—”

“Never experience this?” Dar ducked her head and nibbled Kerry’s nipple, then cupped her hand around Kerry’s neck and passionately returned the kiss.

A soft groan trickled through Kerry’s throat, dusting her own lips with warm breath. “Mm…yeah.” Kerry lifted her head, her eyes half closed, nose-to-nose with Dar. She looked into the passion-darkened blue orbs beneath her. “
I
never thought I would either.”

“Feel this?” Dar teasingly slid her hand down Kerry’s body.

Kerry’s expression unexpectedly gentled. She kissed the spot right above Dar’s heart. “No, this. To be loved for myself.” She kissed the spot again, then shifted back up as Dar lifted her hand and laid it on Kerry’s cheek.

“Neither did I.” Dar raised her head and they kissed again.

Kerry’s arms relaxed as she eased forward and slipped one bare
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thigh between Dar’s. “I think we both lucked out.”

Kerry hugged her, sparing a moment of passion for one of joy.

Dar hugged her back, finding peace in her choices and accepting them. Then Kerry slipped her hand down and under the waistband of Dar’s cotton shorts, and all nobler thoughts evaporated.

She grabbed the front of Kerry’s shirt between her teeth and yanked, letting out a growl as Kerry ducked out of the fabric and got under Dar’s half shirt, finding a tastier target beneath it.

“Hell with leather.” Dar gasped. “Let’s just go in our god damned socks.”

“Hehehe.”

IT WAS DARK and not quite dawn when Dar woke up. The condo was quiet, and she could hear the soft patter of rain against the window not far over her head.

It was Monday. Now that the weekend was over, she had to face the reality of the week, and the private knowledge that today might, in fact, be her last one at ILS. She’d already decided not to tell anyone; in fact, she hadn’t even talked about it with Kerry.

She would just go up to Houston on Tuesday, and then the announcement would come out and that would be that.

So today she would spend cleaning up loose ends, taking solace from the knowledge that at least she was leaving the company in a good position, though losing the Navy contract would be a definite blow. It would work out, though, she was sure. The company could take the hit.

Dar’s thoughts drifted a bit, coming around to her still sleeping partner. She could see dark circles under Kerry’s eyes and that led to her one real worry about the whole deal. She could leave, and it would hurt her, but she was afraid it would hurt Kerry worse, to have to take over everything now, after what she’d just been through.

Or maybe…Dar exhaled. Maybe Kerry would just chuck it all too. Maybe she should, rather than risk a health Dar was beginning to suspect was more at risk than she was willing to admit.

Troubled, she stared at the ceiling, in the rare position of being out of control of her own destiny and not liking the feeling at all. Instead of being soothing, now the incessant patter of the rain made her edgy, half of her wanting the day to start and half of her dreading it.

Her entire body started when the cell went off near her head.

She jerked to one side and reached for it, hissing at the sharp pain in her shoulder. “Shit.”

Kerry woke, her head moving and her eyes blinking dazedly.

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“Huh?”

“Phone.” Dar grabbed it and opened it, rattled and off-balance. “What?” Her heart was thundering, adrenaline pumping through her from the ominously early call. Trouble?

“Uh…Dar?”

Alastair.
Dar’s throat went dry. “Oh. Sorry.” She glanced at the clock. “Good morning.”

“Ah, yes, well, thanks.” Alastair cleared his throat. “Listen, sorry to call you so early.”

Dar felt her heart settle into her guts. “It’s earlier where you are.” She was aware of Kerry’s eyes on her in the dimness, and of the light touch now on her belly, wordless comfort as Kerry seemed to sense her distress. “What’s up?”

“Well, I guess you military types are all early risers. I just heard from Washington,” Alastair said.

Dar didn’t say anything, but she felt her heart rate speed up even more.

“Fact of the matter is, Dar, I didn’t think the general was going to buy into us.”

“Yeah, well…” Dar heard the husky note in her voice.

“But he did,” Alastair said. “I thought he’d ask for ten acres of corroboration, but you know what, Dar? He said your word was good enough.”

Dar was a little surprised to feel the sting of tears in her eyes.

“Did he really?”

“Yes, lady, he did,” Alastair replied. “Never heard a man sound so relieved, I’ll tell you that. Anyway, I just wanted to let you know. And, by the way, he wants to make the announcement to the press at the base down there. You’ll be available?”

It was all too sudden. “Uh…yeah. I guess. When?”

“Friday.”

It was still too much. “You’ll be there?”

“Sure, I can be. Dar, are you all right?”

Dar felt more confused than all right. Everything had unexpectedly turned over again, and she needed time to sort it all out.

“Want to come to my birthday party? It’s this weekend.”

The long period of silence at least gave her time to right her mental balance, while her boss was thoroughly knocked off his.

She glanced down at Kerry, who had nestled back down with her head on Dar’s shoulder and was merely waiting, her fingers tracing an absent pattern on Dar’s belly. The important fact surfaced.

At least Kerry would be all right now.

“Uh, sure, Dar. I’d love to,” Alastair finally said, in a direly bewildered, but reasonably appreciative tone. “Should I bring flowers?”

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“Nah. A bathing suit.”

“B…Hey, how about I call you back later, huh? After breakfast?”

“Talk to you later, Alastair. And thanks.” Dar closed the phone and put it down, then put her arm around Kerry and hugged her.

“Everything okay?” Kerry asked.

No. Yes. Who the hell knew?
“I love you. Everything’s perfect.”

Kerry made a happy sounding grunt and gave her a hug.

The rain eased back into a friendly rumble, and the soft gray light of dawn now became a welcome sight.
Life,
Dar acknowledged,
is a damn, damn funny thing sometimes.

It really was.

“HEY, KERRY.”

Kerry turned, hearing a somewhat familiar voice. She spotted Lena approaching her, looking painfully uncomfortable in her linen skirt suit and pumps. “Hey.” She went back to stirring the two cups of coffee she’d been preparing. “How’s it going?”

“It’s okay,” Lena said. “I think I’m sort of getting the hang of working here. They haven’t thrown me out yet.”

Kerry stifled a smile. “I’m sure you’re doing fine.” She turned again and leaned on the counter. “How did things work out at home? Any changes?”

Lena was briefly silent. “You mean, did the bitch let me come home? No. She dropped the charges, though. Thanks for having those lawyer people talk to her.”

“At least that’s something.” Kerry gave her a sympathetic look. “And it was no problem for us to do that. I’m glad she took the advice.”

Lena nodded. “Hey, I saw you on television the other night.

Sorry to hear about your father and all that stuff.” She seemed a little uncomfortable. “But I’d be glad as hell if my parents croaked.”

Kerry took her cups, sat down, and patted the table next to her. She waited for Lena to take a seat. “You say that, but it’s not true.”